Description of the Prior Art
Bead chains, either decorative or functional, or both, have been utilized for various purposes for more than fifty years. U.S. Pat. No. 2,036,172 issued to Bernard E. Gagnon on Mar. 31, 1936, illustrates and describes a coupling whereby the end of a bead chain may be removably attached to the end of an elongated flexible cord member. While a bead chain coupled to a cord in the manner thus illustrated and described, may have many applications and uses, it does not appear to be readily adaptable for an eyeglass retainer of the type contemplated by the present inventor without making some special modification of the cord member to provide a loop to which the temple of a pair eyeglasses, or some other transverse rigid elongated element may be inserted. Even if a suitable cord of the type shown in the Gagnon patent were to be used, it would appear that once it is installed in the coupling, it could easily be uncoupled if the cord were too long; or incapable of being uncoupled, if the cord were too short. If the cord loop should be too large, the temple of the eyeglasses could slide out.
Since it has now become practical to color bead chains, through the method recently patented to the present inventor by U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,542, and multi-colored bead chains thus produceable have become quite popular for many applications, including as eyeglass retainers, providing a suitable coupling to enable colored bead chains to be thus employed has become most commercially desirable. However, such desired object has not been practically attainable with the coupling of the prior art.